Kariba Dam Totally Explained

Everything about The Kariba Dam totally explained

The Kariba Dam is a hydroelectric dam in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is one of the largest dams in the world at 128 m high and 579 m long.

Construction

The double curvature concrete arch dam was constructed between 1955 and 1959 by Impresit of Italy at a cost of $135,000,000 for the first stage with only the Kariba South power cavern. Final construction and the addition of the Kariba North Power cavern by Mitchell Construction wasn't completed until 1977 due to largely political problems for a total cost of $480,000,000. Some 86 men lost their lives during construction. A 2005 book, "Deep Water" by Jacques Leslie focused on the plight of the people resettled by the dam, and found the situation little changed. Kariba remains the worst dam-resettlement disaster in African history.

Basilwizi Trust

In a quest to restore their lives and find justice, the Tonga formed their own advocacy group in 2000, the Basilwizi Trust. Basilwizi sees itself as a culmination of numerous efforts by the affected people to be heard by the government authorities. They are working to define their needs, and to help the whole community gain skills to directly lobby decision-makers.
In 2005, Basilwizi conducted extensive research on the socio-economic status of the Tonga people. Their report states: “The Gwembe Tonga on the Zambian side and the Zimbabwean Tonga are one; but due to separation brought about by the dam, they're now considered different people. Their languages have become slightly different over the years. Some, especially on the Zimbabwean side, no longer speak Tonga, the language of their ancestors, due to dominance of other indigenous languages.” Basilwizi is now undertaking new activities to revive the Tonga culture, in order to preserve the language and to build local access to education. They are also focusing on food security and access to electricity, still lacking after 50 years.
The group is also calling on the World Bank and other parties involved in building the dam to bring justice to the Tonga. “Calls for reparation, coming many years after the displacement of these people from the land of their ancestors, have not yielded any significant benefits,” observes Basilwizi in its recent report. “Such compensation could be in monetary terms, decommissioning of the dam, official recognition of past and current injustices suffered, or complete restoration of the ecosystems. A new dialog to correct the wrongs committed should commence. The Tonga are … trying to find solutions to their predicament and to rise out of the imposed poverty. The perpetrators shouldn't look at this as a social obligation but a realization that this could have been done better and so what economic, political and cultural program can follow.”

River ecology

It controls 40% of the total runoff of the Zambezi River, thus changing the downstream ecology quite dramatically.

Wildlife rescue

From 1960 to 1961, 'Operation Noah' captured and removed around 6,000 large animals and numerous small ones threatened by the lake's rising waters.

Recent activity

On the 6th of Feb 2008, the BBC reports that the local government announced the capacity of the dam is getting at its limits and will have to let some water go. This will force around 50,000 people downhill to be evacuated.

Further Information

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